SOMETIME AFTER EXEGOL
NEW VERTICA
LATE NIGHT
'Smile.'
She nodded enthusiastically, her lips pressed into a firm line that curved up and pushed against her cheeks with enough tension that it almost looked like she could burst - for a young woman on Nar Shaddaa wasn't she a little too happy? That was, at least, the feeling that Hapan had while Amara answered his question. His hand, his right, was holding her left loosely while they stood outside of one of the many bars that dotted the backwater city's streets. "Tomorrow, then?" She asked, her head tilting just slightly to the side in such a way that the many neon lights above them lit up her face. They hardly knew each other, really, but for some reason he felt like they were close enough to have known each other for years. "Of course." He said.
He hadn't realized he had returned her smile with one of his own.
-
"Have a goodnight, then."
It wasn't before long that they were separated, he going down one end of the road and her the other, and immediately she felt the tension in her face slack when she let the mask drop. 'Tomorrow? What about next week, or next month?' Thoughts about the future constantly ran through her mind, pulling her attention away from the colored steam that wafted up in front of her from the many exhaust vents that lined the pavement beside each building she passed. She had connected with everyone she'd spoken to from the moment she'd made it off Metalorn but none of them had stuck, not really, for one reason or another. Her fling with Vex, the Trandoshan that had brought her to Narsh, had been intense at first but his interest in her had all but evaporated the moment she let her guard down. It had already been a week since they'd last seen each other, and she knew from the trip to the cantina tonight that his ship was gone from the hangar he'd been keeping it in - as with everyone before him she'd made a critical error in judgment, in this case thinking he'd keep supporting her without much effort on her part.
-
It didn't surprise her much to find the lock changed on the door to Vex's suite, her access card returning an unfamiliar red glow rather than a welcoming green when she tried to get inside. They had an argument the last night they'd been together, about her unwillingness to get her hands dirty in his smuggling job, which was a mistake she would make sure not to repeat with the next friend she fell in with. 'I'll have to push Dash a little harder tomorrow, then.' The connection with the Hapan would likely go the same way, she figured, but without a place to stay he was her only lifeline until she found another person to fall back on. The Umbaran woman living next door though..
She found herself knocking before she even realized what she was doing, a familiar and practiced smile cropping up the moment the door began to open.
